The short answer to 'Why do you write' is - I suppose I write for some of the same reasons I read:… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
If you're a woman writer, sometime, somewhere, you will be asked: Do you think of yourself as a writer first, or as… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
The reader cannot see into your heart. He will know only what you tell him. Make the blind see your words. Make… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“Possibly, then, writing has to do with darkness, and a desire or perhaps a compulsion to enter it, and, with luck, to… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Everyone thinks writers must know more about the inside of the human head, but that's wrong. They know less, that's why they… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
It's probably a form of childish curiosity that keeps me going as a fiction writer. I ... want to open everybody's bureau… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
My family was big on sharing. I guess it was just the way I was brought up. Or maybe, I read those… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
The object is very clear in the fight against racism; you have reasons why you're opposed to it. But when you're writing… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
It's a critical fallacy of our times ... that a writer should 'grow,' 'change,' or 'develop.' This fallacy causes us to expect… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
You always think, 'Oh, if only I had a little chalet in the mountains! How great that would be and I'd do… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“I must admit it's a surprise to find myself still here, still talking to you. I prefer to think of it as… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
After a year or two of keeping my head down and trying to pass myself off as a normal person, I made… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Writers are much better behaved nowadays, for a couple of reasons. Once upon a time nobody was thinking of a career, unless… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
I no longer feel I'll be dead by thirty; now it's sixty. I suppose these deadlines we set for ourselves are really… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“the only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
A non-event ... is better to write about than an event, because with a non-event you can make up the meaning yourself,… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
My brother and I were both teenage writers, and he was, I have to say, better than I was, but he went… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
Poetry isn't written from the idea down. It's written from the phrase, line and stanza up, which is different from what your… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
When I am writing fiction, I believe I am much better organized, more methodical - one has to be when writing a… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason. Think of it as… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“Writing is not a job description. A great deal of it is luck. Don't do it if you are not a gambler… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share Image
“I'm fine," said Pilar, "for the moment. And the moment is the only time we can be fine in.” — Margaret Atwood Copy Share
And yet it disturbs me to learn I have hurt someone unintentionally. I want all my hurts to be intentional. — Margaret Atwood Copy Share
“Mary: Some call this "Eve's curse," but I think that is stupid because the real curse of Eve was having to put up with… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share
“The birds were singing around me, but I reflected that the very birds were strangers to me, for I did not even know their… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share
“Strange how we decorate pain. These ribbons, for instance, and the small hard teardrops of blood. Who are they for? Do we think the… — margaret atwood Copy Share
I wanted to forget the past, but it refused to forget me; it waited for sleep, then cornered me. — Margaret Atwood Copy Share
“Back at home they drew the curtains and read, with disapproval, with relish, with avidity and glee - even the ones who'd never thought… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share
All fiction is about people, unless it's about rabbits pretending to be people. It's all essentially characters in action, which means characters moving through… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share
“Simon walks back to the house alone. The night is clear and warm, with a moon, almost full, enclosed in a nimbus of mist;… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share
“There is indeed something delightful about being able to combine obedience and disobedience in the same act.” — Margaret Atwood Copy Share
“Every time the women appear, Snowman is astonished all over again. They're every known colour from the deepest black to whitest white, they're various… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share
Once you publish a book, it is out of your control. You cannot dictate how people read it. — Margaret Atwood Copy Share
“The more difficult it was to love the particular man beside us, the more we believed in Love, abstract and total. We were waiting,… — Margaret Atwood Copy Share
“She knows she's deceiving herself about that, but she prefers to deceive herself. She desperately needs to believe such pure joy is still possible.” — Margaret Atwood Copy Share
